Bai Qi closed his eyes, his chest heaving.
It took him a moment to calm down.
“You’re right.
I was being too naive.”
“Exactly.
Just look at the human world.” Xin Huohuo pointed to the lights of the skyscrapers outside the hospital and the starry sky above, which was rendered dim by the city’s glow.
“Everywhere you look, it’s still a scene of peace and prosperity.
People’s lives haven’t been affected.
I think this means our opponent doesn’t want to cause massive chaos in the mortal realm either.
He has his reservations, which means we still have time.”
“Then let’s go see how Mr.
Hei is doing.” Bai Qi pulled Xin Huohuo along, then suddenly lowered his head and chuckled.
“Actually, Mr.
Hei was right.
You need to buy a car.
You’re too slow.”
“I have a feeling his offer to help me buy a cheap house was just a trick to get me to buy a car, to make it more convenient for you guys to go on missions,” Xin Huohuo huffed.
“I might pull a fast one on you, but Mr.
Hei never would.” Bai Qi fanned himself with his hand.
“He’s completely by the book and rigidly follows the laws of Heaven and Earth.
He’s incredibly steadfast; nothing can sway him.
So don’t worry, he won’t trick you.”
In truth, Xin Huohuo also knew that Mr.
Hei most likely wouldn’t deceive her.
It was just that the drastic changes in her life left her feeling insecure.
But when they got home, Mr.
Hei was already waiting, which made her feel that buying a car was indeed necessary.
“How are things on your end?” Bai Qi, ever impatient, asked before he even sat down.
“Same as yesterday.” Mr.
Hei’s expression was grave.
“I waited at the hospital for a departed soul who was about to set off on its journey and followed it to that street-side park.
Then, it vanished.
I entered the park but still couldn’t find the path and had no choice but to turn back the way I came.
That place is like a giant mouth, waiting to devour something.
But if we go in, we just get spat back out.”
“So what’s the next step?” This phrase had practically become Xin Huohuo and Bai Qi’s official motto.
“We’ll rest for a bit.
Tomorrow at noon, Huo’er will take us over there,” Mr.
Hei said directly, clearly having already planned his next move.
“In broad daylight?
To the street-side park?
You two?
Doesn’t that mean you’ll have to go in your cat and dog forms?” Xin Huohuo asked, astonished.
“While possessing small animals, we indeed cannot use our Mana.
But we still have our eyes and our spiritual senses.
At the very least, we can see what the place looks like during the day.”
“Alright, fine.
I guess I won’t sleep then.
I’ll go buy a car first thing in the morning, then take you to the vet for a check-up and vaccinations,” Xin Huohuo said reluctantly.
“Don’t glare at me, I’m not a sadist.
Going to the vet costs money, you know!
But if you want to have physical bodies to possess long-term, you have to take care of them.
Besides, how am I supposed to take you there without a car?
Buses don’t allow animals, unless it’s a guide dog.
Is Qi a guide dog?”
Qi felt very ashamed.
“As for taxis, they often refuse passengers with pets.
See?
You think living as a human is so easy?”
“Being human is such a pain,” Mr.
Hei finally cursed, resigning himself to his fate.
In an era of great material abundance, the service industry could provide one-stop service—convenient and fast, as long as you had the money.
With her precious bank card in hand, Xin Huohuo managed to pick up a used car in just one morning.
It was eighty percent new, manual transmission, had decent horsepower but was fuel-efficient.
The interior and exterior had apparently been thoroughly cleaned, and the inside smelled of new leather.
‘It’s going to be used as a spirit vehicle anyway, no need to buy new.’ As long as the car’s performance was good, its appearance didn’t matter.
‘Alright, this is the one!’
Afterward, she drove the car on its temporary license plate, taking Qi and Mr.
Hei to the vet.
Seeing them forcibly endure the doctor’s handling, she couldn’t help but find it amusing.
By the time the ordeal was over and they reached the street-side park, it was already two in the afternoon.
“Back at the vet, I felt like someone was spying on us,” Bai Qi said, puzzled.
“Didn’t you notice?
The souls of dead animals weren’t lingering nearby either.
They must have somewhere else to go,” Mr.
Hei noted, identifying a new problem.
Unfortunately, at the street-side park, Xin Huohuo put them in her backpack and wandered around for several laps.
It wasn’t a large place, and she went over every spot multiple times, but she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
“Could it be that the bewildering array only appears at night?” the two of them guessed in unison.
And so, Xin Huohuo was asked to enter the park that night in her human form.
They went when it was still early.
The city lights were just coming on, and it wasn’t just Xin Huohuo; many other people were walking through, yet no one felt anything was amiss.
The area was surrounded by large shopping centers, a movie theater, high-end restaurants, and the like.
After shopping or dining, many people would sit here for a while, sometimes occupying all the benches.
In a place with such abundant Yang energy, where could any shadows possibly hide?
The strange thing was, when Qi and Mr.
Hei entered the park, they still got lost as before.
But when the three of them tried to move together, the bewildering array disappeared entirely.
“That’s so high-level, I’m floored.” Back home that night, Bai Qi couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
“Whoever our opponent is, they can have my knees.”
“It seems to be two overlapping spaces,” Mr.
Hei explained to a bewildered Xin Huohuo.
“When a ghost enters, it becomes an Array.
When a living human or animal from the mortal world enters, it’s just an ordinary park.
Furthermore, because we are government officers of the Netherworld, we can’t find the path at all after entering.
We’re blocked by invisible walls.”
“So you’re saying, even though we know there’s a problem here, we can’t investigate it.” Xin Huohuo was a little disappointed, as she had been hoping to resolve the Yellow Springs Road incident quickly so she could be free of all this.
“To break this stalemate, we must find a flaw in these two overlapping spaces, but…
it seems we won’t be finding one anytime soon.
Our opponent’s methods are too sophisticated.
Even at the height of our power, with our full Mana, we might not have been a match for them.
What’s more…”
What’s more, they were now just one-tenth gods.
The impasse left the three of them at a complete loss.
After a long while, an idea suddenly struck Xin Huohuo.
“Should we check out the surrounding area?
Maybe this park is just the main gate.”
“You’re not just looking for an excuse to go shopping, are you?” Bai Qi said snidely.
“The surrounding area is all luxury shopping malls.”
“You said it yourself, luxury goods.
Do you think I can afford any of it?” Xin Huohuo rolled her eyes at him.
“Let’s wait until after ten tonight when the malls are closed and go take a look.
Sometimes the impossible turns out to be possible, right?”
“Let’s go!” Mr.
Hei made the final decision.
And so, for the first time in her life, Xin Huohuo found herself wandering through a deserted shopping mall.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly special experience, aside from having to dodge security guards and cameras.
Since all the shops were locked, she could only look at the beautiful luxury goods, not touch them, feasting her eyes from a safe distance.
The unlucky part was that Qi and Mr.
Hei didn’t find anything unusual, meaning it was all a wasted effort.
That is, until they circled the street-side park and discovered, not far to its north, a place that was completely out of step with its surroundings.